Allworx's new President: Re-engaging channels & PAETEC bundles

With three days on the job, Allworx President Jeff Howe sat down with FierceVoIP to talk about the challenges the company faces and the advantages integration with parent CLEC PAETEC brings to the table.

"We don't have a product problem," said Howe. "Our engineering and support are good... We have a revenue issue. How do we take it to the next level?"

Howe, formerly PAETEC's Vice President/General Manager for the Agent Channel, is focusing on re-engaging Allworx's resellers and to offer them new opportunities to generate both more revenue and monthly recurring revenue.

Part of the solution is to create new bundles and services leveraging PAETEC offerings with the baseline IP PBX telephony hardware and phones so resellers can provide more than a one-time revenue opportunity. PAETEC, a national telecommunications provider focused on "business-class" customers, generated over $1.6 billion in revenue last year. With a footprint covering more than 80 percent of the nation's 100 metropolitan areas, PAETEC certainly has the reach to support channel partners of all sizes.

Allworx resellers will soon have the option of creatively financing gear through PAETEC and bundling in monthly phone services. Resellers would get a cut of the monthly revenues from the PAETEC services that they sell.

In one model, PAETEC could provide a monthly financing option for Allworx equipment along with phone services on a single bill. A leasing-type arrangement would be a much more attractive option to businesses wanting to avoid a large, out-of-pocket capital expenditure. PAETEC could also provide other managed services through an Internet-based bundle, including off-site data backup and recovery, web server hosting, and managed firewall and router support.